The Many Shades of Blue
by subtract
Summary: The civil war in the Kanaro System was never something they wanted to become involved in, but history seems to have other plans. Featuring a highly unpredictable flight squad, wavering loyalties, and a violent interplanetary dispute. Chapter 3: No first meetings are complete without some sort of disaster.
1. Chapter 1

**The Many Shades of Blue**

CHAPTER ONE

"...And _that's _why you never antagonize a Crested Wendon in heat, Rose," the Doctor shouted as he and Rose sprinted through the dense thicket.

"I got that, thanks," Rose panted, ducking beneath the low-hanging branches. She spared a glance over her shoulder at the enraged red creature chasing them. Its seven black eyes glinted and it snapped its long mandibles. "You remember where the TARDIS is, don't you?"

"Just a few more turns and we're there… I think."

"You _think_?"

An enormous dead tree covered in white fungi had fallen in their path, which they clamored over with some difficulty. The Crested Wendon clicked and hissed behind them.

"I don't remember coming this way, Doctor!"

"This is a shortcut."

"_Doctor!_"

The Doctor took a hard left, dragging Rose behind him. There was the TARDIS, waiting patiently for them in the clearing. "Look, Rose, we're here with plenty of time to spare," the Doctor said.

"Let's talk about it later, yeah?" Rose pulled her key from her pocket and jammed it into the lock. The door swung open and she and the Doctor fell inside the ship. The Doctor scrambled to his feet first and slammed the door shut, just before the Wendon could get inside. There was the sound of sharp pincers scraping against the wooden door and an irritated clacking noise before the Wendon gave up and wandered away.

The Doctor slid down the door to a sitting position next to Rose. They locked eyes, and after a minute of silence except for their rapid breathing, they both cracked smiles and descended into a fit of insane giggling.

"Your face when you saw the mother, though," the Doctor laughed, wiping his eyes.

Rose's stomach ached from laughing."How was _I _supposed to know they were her babies? I thought she was _eating _them!"

"She probably was. Wendons eat all but one of their offspring, so that only the strongest survive."

"That's stupid," Rose said, still trying to control her laughter.

"Well, maybe," the Doctor said with a grin. He pushed himself to his feet, offering his hand to help Rose up. "Or maybe they think you're crazy for trying to raise all of your children at once."

"Oh no, an alien spider crab thinks I'm crazy, whatever will I do?" Rose joked. She and the Doctor went to the main controls. She gave him a smile. "So where are we off to next? Somewhere with less spider crabs, maybe?"

"I think that can be arranged." The Doctor spun the monitor around and typed in a string of coordinates. A turquoise planet surrounded by thin white clouds appeared on the screen. "How does this look?"

Rose moved closer to examine the image. "Sort of hard to tell from a distance, but it looks pretty. What's it called?"

"It's called Nikaro. It translates to 'waterfall' in their language. The planet's covered in some of the biggest waterfalls in the Draco Eridani galaxy, and they've created the single most effective hydroelectric system in the universe. Rumor has it that you can see the waterfalls from outer space."

"Well, if _rumor has it_, then I think it's worth it to check it out," Rose said. She tried to zoom in on the picture, but the Doctor moved the monitor out of the way.

"Nope, no fair peeking at the waterfalls ahead of time." He smiled at her. "But maybe you could help me fly the TARDIS there...?"

Rose gave him a salute. "Aye aye, captain! I start with the blue lever, yeah?"

"Just let me set our coordinates for outside Nikaro's atmosphere." The Doctor adjusted some of the dials and punched in a new set of numbers. "All right, captain Tyler, ready when you are."

Rose pulled down the blue lever, and the TARDIS's warp engines groaned into life. The control panel sparked as Rose and the Doctor managed the controls.

"Stabilize the toroidal shift circuit," the Doctor called as the TARDIS wobbled.

"Which one is that?" Rose asked. "Is it this red wheel?"

"Don't touch the red wheel!" The Doctor dove across the console and spun a black wheel by Rose's right hand. "Red wheel controls the antimatter storage tank. You don't want to mess with that."

Rose moved her hand away from the red wheel. "Oops."

"Hit the red button next to that spinny ball to bring us into orbit," the Doctor said. He grappled with the shaking controls under his hands as Rose immediately jumped for the red button. With a wheezing noise, the TARDIS rumbled to a stop, throwing them both to the floor. The Doctor grinned at Rose from the other side of the control table. "Nice work, captain Tyler."

"Shut up," Rose said with a smile, though inwardly she was very pleased she had managed to help the Doctor pilot the TARDIS without breaking anything. "Let's see if the rumors about those waterfalls are true." She went to the door and threw it open.

Instead of a shining blue planet, a spaceship streaked past and exploded in front of her. If the TARDIS's protective shields had not been there, she would have been vaporized instantly. She stumbled backwards as the wave of energy passed over her.

"Rose! Get back!" The Doctor ran to the doors and slammed them shut. Rose's hands shook as the intense jolt of energy she felt faded away. The Doctor ran back to the control table and jerked the monitor around.

"Doctor?" Rose asked. Her voice was shaking as badly as her hands. "Doctor, what was that?"

The Doctor didn't answer as he adjusted the exterior camera to get a better view of the space outside. The serene view of the watery planet he had been expecting was obscured by a ferocious battle between two fleets of star fighters. A nearby explosion shook the TARDIS, rattling the controls and the occupants. "All right, change of plans, we're not visiting Nikaro, we're going somewhere else," the Doctor said, rushing to input new coordinates into the computer. Before he could finish, a crackle of static sounded through the communicator.

_"...is Flagship Intrepid to...unknown...state authorization."_

"Um, yes, hello!" the Doctor said into the microphone. "Terribly sorry about the intrusion, Flagship Intrepid, we were just passing through by accident. We'll be on our way, if you don't mind."

"Wait, Doctor!" Rose said, tugging him away from the communicator. "If there's people fighting out there, they might need help. And that's what we're traveling together for, yeah? To help?"

"I'm not interested in joining a war, Rose." Another explosion sounded, followed by a rumble of energy passing over the TARDIS. The Doctor and Rose had to grab onto the edge of the control panel to keep from toppling over.

Rose put her hand on top of the Doctor's. "I _know_ you don't like fighting. But if we can help, I think we should. We could even stop the fighting, maybe."

"Rose, listen," the Doctor said. "This is the Kanaro System Civil War. I didn't mean to bring you here, I thought we were aimed towards the 34th century instead of the 43rd. This war spans across their entire solar system, across seven different planets. It's an incredibly violent war that ends with billions of casualties. It's _not safe _for you to be here."

"We've been in lots of 'unsafe' situations before, and it's never stopped us then."

"This is different, this is..." The Doctor was interrupted by the chiming of the communicator again.

_"Flagship Intrepid to unknown...authorization failure...taken to high command..."_

The Doctor's eyes widened and he jumped for the engine ignition lever. When he pulled it, the familiar groaning of the TARDIS's engines failed to sound. He jiggled it up and down, but nothing happened.

"Blimey..." The Doctor ran his hands through his hair, sticking it up on end. He twirled the monitor towards himself. "They've got us caught in some sort of temporal cage. We're _stuck_." The entire TARDIS trembled slightly when it was tugged out of place. The Doctor fiddled with the dials of the exterior camera to focus in on the chaotic battle taking place outside. Rose watched as bolts of blue and green light lit up the blackness of space and small ships streaked across the sky. When the bolts connected with one of the ships, a fiery orange explosion would temporary blot out the light of the stars behind it.

"I think they said they're bringing us to...high command." Rose said. The Doctor nodded silently. "Is that...bad?"

The Doctor let out a hiss of air. "Well, it depends on whose high command we've been discovered by. If it's the Committee for the Preservation of Planetary Rights, we might be in a spot of trouble. Well, I say a spot. More like a supernova of trouble. Enough trouble that it keeps sucking in more trouble to make a big black hole of trouble."

Rose smiled a bit hesitantly. "Oh, and here I thought we might have to deal with something _hard_ for a change."

"Funny. Personally, I don't think there's any harm in hoping we've been found by the Kanaro Republic States. Then we might only be in a blue giant of trouble, as opposed to the supernova."

"Hmm...the blue giant sounds prettier than the supernova. I'll go with that one too."

"I know a sentient supernova that would be very offended by that."

"Oh, you do not." Rose stared at him. "You don't. Do you?" The Doctor just smiled and raised his eyebrows. She slapped his arm lightly. "You're just messing with me, aren't you?"

"You know me. Anything to diffuse the tension."

"Shut up," Rose said, grinning back. "So this civil war then. Who wins?"

"Ah...well..."

Rose gaped at him. "Don't tell me you don't _know?_"

The Doctor raised his hands defensively. "Do _you _remember everything you ever learned in primary school?"

"You're impossible."

The crackle of the communicator refocused their attention. The connection was much steadier than before. _"This is Flagship Intrepid to unknown. You have been transported to the Intrepid and are about to be placed in the docking bay. Upon arrival you will exit your ship with your hands in the air and all weapons left behind. Any attempt to escape will result in your immediate destruction."_

"They certainly are a cheery lot, aren't they," Rose said breezily. The Doctor shushed her as the transmission continued over the sound of a pressure lock releasing.

_"You will be escorted to the conference room where you will answer any and all questions about yourself and your loyalties. Any threat to your questioner will result in your immediate destruction. If you are found to be trustworthy, further negotiations may be conducted. If you are found untrustworthy, this will result in your immediate destruction."_

Rose pulled the microphone away from the Doctor. "Yeah, I think we've got the whole 'immediate destruction' thing down, mate."

_"...Lady, I'm just trying to do my job, okay? We call this 'due warning' so it's all legal to the higher ups. Is that okay with you or what?"_

"All right, all right, continue on with our immediate destruction." Rose could practically hear the eyeroll coming from the other end of the radio. "No need to get pissy about it."

There was a slight hissing noise as the TARDIS was settled on to solid ground. _"Please exit your ship with your hands in the air and your weapons inside. Failure to comply will result in your immediate destruction."_

The Doctor clicked off the communicator and he and Rose went to the entrance of the TARDIS. "Rose," he said. "I really am sorry to have dragged you into this. This isn't the kind of thing I wanted to get you involved in."

Rose gave his hand a squeeze. "Hey. It's all right. If we're together, what's the worst that could happen?"

"I was afraid you'd say something like that." The Doctor sucked in a deep breath. "Well, there's nothing to be done about it now." They pushed open the doors of the TARDIS together, where they were met with the painfully bright interior of a space ship hanger. Two humanoid guards with dark skin and shaved heads waited for them. They were both wearing some sort of space suit with gun holsters clipped to their belts. Neither of them looked pleased to see them.

"Allons-y, Miss Tyler," the Doctor whispered.

They raised their hands and stepped outside.

**A/N: Any and all reviews are appreciated. Thank you!**


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

"Alright fellas, let's take it easy there," the Doctor said as the two guards pulled out their guns and leveled them at him and Rose. "This is all just one big misunderstanding, I guarantee you."

The guards didn't pay much heed as they snapped metal handcuffs around their prisoner's wrists and pushed them towards a hallway lined with flickering blue lights. It took their eyes a while to adjust from the piercing brightness of the hanger to the dimmer atmosphere in the passage. The walls were made of glass, giving Rose and the Doctor a clear view of the blue planet beneath them. Even from thousands of miles above the planet's surface, it was possible to pick out the general outlines of Nikaro's famous waterfalls and hydroelectric generators.

"Looks like you were right, Doctor," Rose said, slowing her pace and gesturing down at the planet. "You can see 'em from space - hey! Okay, I'm going!"

The guard prodded Rose in the back with his gun again to keep her moving. Rose shot him an aggravated look, but continued down the hallway.

A moment later, there was a loud groan of creaking metal. Off to the right, a large explosion flashed and rocked the flagship as the oxygen escaped from the destroyed ship and was momentarily ignited. Two small black ships soared away from the newly formed wreckage.

One of the guards stopped for a moment. "Oh _slag_, Drace, that was another one of ours…"

"Quiet!" the other guard, evidently named Drace, hissed. "These two could be CPR worms. They can't hear anything about… internal affairs." He shouldered Rose forward again before either she or the Doctor could protest being called worms.

After walking in silence for a while, Rose tried speaking to the guards again. "So… we're not really from around here. Either of you boys want to tell me what's going on? Or, you know, why we're in handcuffs?" She gave them a hopeful smile, trying to diffuse some of the tension surrounding their situation.

To her surprise, the guard named Drace barked out a derisive laugh. "Even _I _expected better tactics than _that _from a CPR spy."

"Yeah, that's another thing, what's the CPR?" Rose asked, deciding to ignore Drace's insulting tone.

"You have to be kidding," Drace snorted. "We're not going to give away KRS secrets just because you _asked _us. Honestly, I'm insulted that you idiots are the best the CPR can do."

"Oi!" the Doctor said with a miffed frown. "Watch who you're calling an idiot."

The path of the hallway curved away to the left, but the guards stopped them in front of a panel in the wall. Drace held Rose and the Doctor away while the other guard pressed his arm to a scanner. A small light switched from red to green, and the panel slid away to reveal a lift-like contraption that the four of them squeezed into. Once they had filed inside, the door slid shut with a click. A buzzing noise came out of a loudspeaker above them.

"_Identify yourself and your destination_."

"Hey, that's the bloke who kept going on about our 'immediate destruction'," Rose whispered to the Doctor, who smirked slightly in return.

"This is Neo, ID 206175-GI, headed to high command," said the guard with his face turned up towards the speaker.

"_Processing...okay Neo, you're cleared." _The lift lurched and then headed up at a pace much faster than the Earth lifts Rose was used to. "_Hey Neo, what're you doing up at high command? You didn't get busted for smuggling those Ururn chocolates on board, did you?_"

"No!" Neo said loudly, "I didn't...um, actually, we have two suspected CPR spies that we're bringing to General Isar."

Only static came out of the speaker for a few seconds. "_...Oh. I was, um, just kidding about that, um, chocolate thing, of course. Okay, uh, good luck Neo." _The speaker cut away and the lift came to a halt. There was a hiss as the air pressure lock released and the door opened on a bustling command center filled with a dozen people manning different monitors and terminals. A large holographic display in the center seemed to be broadcasting Nikaro and the battle happening around it. A buzzer would go off every so often when one of the ships was destroyed. A red flashing light marked the position of the _Flagship Intrepid_. Several people had turned in their direction when the lift had opened, but they had refocused their attention on the hologram and shouting numbers and commands that held no meaning to Rose or the Doctor.

One man in particular stood out among the others. Everyone in the room was in uniform, but his seemed more decorated than the others. He gazed intently at the hologram, his eyes flashing as the white display washed over his dark skin. Unlike the people around him, he was not rapidly relaying statistics and coordinates. Though his posture seemed passive, his expression was alert and calculating.

The guards pushed the Doctor and Rose into the control room and towards the imposing man, who gave them a brief glance. The guards snapped their heels together and pressed one hand to their chests in synchronization, clearly a display of respect like a salute. "General Isar, sir!" they said together.

General Isar nodded to acknowledge them, and they relaxed slightly. "Report, gentlemen."

Drace put a hand on Rose's shoulder, as though to prevent her from moving. "These are the suspected CPR spies discovered in orbit around the _Intrepid_. We were instructed to bring them directly to you, General. So far they haven't tried anything suspicious, but we've kept a tight leash on them."

"Look," the Doctor interrupted. "General Isar, was it? This is all a big misunderstanding that I'd _love _to stay and clear up, but we're both very busy people and…" He was cut off as the ship shuddered and pitched slightly to the left. The displays around them flickered for a moment before they steadied again.

General Isar turned his attention back to the hologram of the battle. "You are correct in one thing. I am very busy. However, you will excuse me if I find this situation to be more serious than a simple misunderstanding," he said. He paused to smooth out the front of his uniform. "Guards, put them in my cabin and wait outside. This issue requires my full attention, which is unfortunately unavailable at the moment."

"Wait, really, this will only take a moment!" the Doctor argued, but the general seemed to have decided the conversation was over. The guards directed them back into the lift and took them down a few floors, though a hallway, and into a small, plain room containing a bed, a desk, a chair, and nothing more. Over Rose and the Doctor's indignant protesting, the guards left them inside and closed the door behind them, though they no doubt remained posted outside to prevent them from escaping.

The Doctor wandered over to the bed and sat down in a huff. "Well, really," he said exasperatedly. "It's one thing to be captured and another thing to be _ignored_."

Rose sat down next to him. "Yeah, it really takes all the fun out of being arrested, doesn't it?" she said in a mock-serious tone.

"Exactly!" The Doctor said as he laid back on the mattress. "Thank Rassilon at least _you _understand me, Rose."

"Nothing but the best for you, Doctor."

"I was _trying_ to tell him that I could prove we had only been here for a few minutes. The TARDIS keeps track of that sort of thing, you know. We could have been in and out before he could say 'furious fried fresh fish' three times fast."

Rose jumped off the bed and took a seat on top of the desk. "Well, he _has_ got a war on, in case you didn't notice." She took a closer look at the design of the desk she was perched on. It was very utilitarian and organized. She didn't see a single stray sheet of paper, or whatever was used in the 43rd century. In fact, the only thing not tucked neatly away in a drawer was a flat black device that lit up when she brushed her fingers against its surface. The words "password required" blinked on the screen above a grid of numbers, where she was apparently expected to input some sort of numerical code.

"Hey, Doctor, you're smart and bored," she said. She handed him the device. "Want to take a crack at opening this thing?"

"Thanks for finally noticing how brilliant I am," the Doctor joked. He took the device out of her hands and turned it over a few times. His eyebrows furrowed the longer he looked at it.

Rose waited expectantly. "So? What is it? Some sort of computer? You can hack into all sorts of computers, right?"

"Ah...well, it's sort of like a computer. Well, I say computer. More like a document organizer. Like the Google Docs of the future."

"Google's still around in the 43rd century?"

"Google is a universal constant," the Doctor said sagely. "And for this time period, this thing is enormous in terms of memory. General Isar could have every book on 21st century Earth copied and saved digitally in here. Imagine being able to carry around 130 million books at a time. It's amazing."

He tossed the organizer back to Rose, who had to leap off the desk to catch it before it hit the ground. She set it back neatly where she had been sitting. "So can't you just… you know, sonic it open?" she asked.

"Well… yes and no. You see that string of numbers at the bottom of the screen? That's a very strong anti-virus protection that isn't impossible to get around, but if I did force my way in, it would leave an obvious trail behind. Aaaand…"

"What, you don't want to incriminate us for real this early on?" Rose asked.

"You got me."

"Such a shame. Just when I thought we were going to have some fun."

The Doctor picked up the general's pillow and lobbed it at Rose, who batted it out of the air. She promptly bounded off the desk, scooped up the pillow, and whacked him round the face.

After another few minutes, they heard someone approaching from the hallway and the shuffle as the guards moved to open the door. They quickly shoved the pillow and blankets back into place and tried to appear natural when General Isar walked into the room.

"Well, that could have taken a lot longer," the Doctor commented as General Isar ran a surveying eye over both Rose and the Doctor and the disarray of his previously immaculate room.

"The battle is far from over, I assure you," General Isar said harshly. "But the main part of it will take place on the planet's surface as I am sure you are aware."

"Ah, no, that's news to us," the Doctor said. Rose nodded her head in agreement.

General Isar narrowed his eyes. "Aircraft warfare is typically much briefer than land engagement, given that in space there is nowhere for pilots to hide. Unless, of course, your people had a blockade set up, but as you know, Nikaro remains disputed territory."

Rose looked at the Doctor in confusion and cleared her throat. "Ahem, sorry, I must have missed something, what do you mean by 'our people'?"

"The CPR. The Committee for the Preservation of Planetary Rights. The people you work for."

"Oooh, now I see where we went wrong," the Doctor said, giving Rose a subtle wink. "We aren't spies. In fact, as I was _trying _to tell you earlier, we aren't members of this conflict at all. We're… well, we're…"

"Tourists! We're tourists," Rose supplied brightly.

"Yes! That's it! We're tourists. We came for the waterfalls and the hydroelectric turbines, and took a wrong turn somewhere." _Which is technically true_, the Doctor thought.

The general pulled up the chair at the desk and sat down in it heavilty with his arms crossed across his chest. He sighed. "And you expect me to _believe _this? The CPR's espionage standards have fallen greatly since the last time I was confronted with their treachery."

"We can prove that we just got here though," the Doctor said. "In our ship - "

"Your ship," General Isar interrupted, "has been impounded as a threat to domestic security. You will not be seeing it again until we can be certain that you are not involved with the CPR."

The Doctor sprang to his feet in outrage. "You did _what?_"

"Doctor - " Rose tugged on his sleeve and pulled him back down. "We, um, we can still prove that we weren't here. Um…" Her mind whirled about for an answer before she lit up with an idea. "Oh! We have that, uh, parking ticket from yesterday! It came from… some other planet that isn't this one, right, Doctor?"

"The parking ticket?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"You know," the Rose said, giving him a significant look. "The parking ticket that you put in your… brown wallet thing?"

"My brown… oh!" The Doctor reached inside his coat pocket and pulled out the psychic paper. "There you go, we were ticketed yesterday for parking in a reserved space outside the International Opera House on Lunesti. The date's on there and everything." He handed the psychic paper over to the general, who appraised it with a critical eye before he seemed to come to the conclusion that it was legitimate. He handed the 'ticket' back to the Doctor before he let out a frustrated huff and leaned back in the chair.

"It appears that we may have had a misunderstanding," he finally said. The Doctor and Rose beamed at him, but he remained stony faced. "We will not be able to return your ship to you for quite a while, I'm afraid. We authorized our technicians to examine it, and there is no telling when they'll be finished with it. And the Kenaro Republic's laws say that once we give clearance, it cannot be rescinded."

Rose took a one look at the Doctor's face and decided to answer before he could say anything. "Well, that won't be a problem if we can just stay here until you're done. In fact, if you tell us what's going on, we might even be able to help you out here. I mean, the Doctor's a genius, especially with technology and things. And I'm really good with people, and a pretty good aim, I guess. If you needed me somewhere else."

"Rose, we can't _help_," the Doctor said, a slight warning in his tone. "And we're certainly not getting involved in a war."

She shook her head. "No, we can always help, Doctor."

"This is different, Rose…"

Rose decided to ignore him. "General Isar, sir, my _companion_ might not be willing to help you out, but I am. Just give me a rundown of what's happened so far and then tell me what you need me to do."

The general opened his mouth to answer, but the Doctor cut him off. "Rose. This is a bloody, violent civil war that started because some corrupt politicians started getting a little bit too greedy. It flies in the face of everything that I - that _we_ \- stand for. What ever happened to the nonviolent approach, hmm? Or are you forgetting about that?"

"Doctor, you said that this war's been going on for what, three years? It's too late to stop it from happening, but there's still a chance for us to finish it." Rose looked at him with pleading eyes. "I know, I know, you're a pacifist, but what about helping people? Even if you have to fight for peace?"

The Doctor hesitated, clearly torn between his hatred of violence and his loyalty to Rose. "I… Rose, I don't know, this isn't right…"

"You heard that guard, Neo, wasn't it? Things aren't going well for them. We have to help if we can. You _always_ help if you can."

The mattress shook slightly as the Doctor tightened his grip on the blanket. When he exhaled, it was long and shaky. Finally, he closed his eyes and shook his head. "...You're right, Rose. We have to help if we can. We have to." He slowly opened his eyes and looked directly at General Isar. "She's right. We'll help. What do you need us to do?"

General Isar waited for a moment, as though he was giving them a chance to change their minds as he drilled holes into them with his piercing gaze. Just as the Doctor was about to put his foot down and pull him and Rose out of the mess she had dragged them into, he spoke. "You, Mr. Doctor, you have some skills in electronics and technological manipulation?"

"Just the Doctor is fine, and yes, I am basically the most intelligent person you've ever been near," the Doctor said with more acid in his voice than usual.

"Our codebreaking and strategical units have been struggling as of recently. Your assistance would be… welcome. Neo can show you where to go. As for you, Ms. Rose, we have need of… a voice of reason with one of our newer flight squads. You might prove beneficial working with them. Drace can direct you towards the flight deck."

General Isar rose, so Rose and the Doctor did as well. While he went to open the door, the Doctor placed a hand on Rose's back. "If we get killed, I get to say I told you so. Deal?" he whispered.

Rose smiled and touched his hand on her shoulder. "Deal." _As long as we can help_, she thought. _What's the worst that could happen, anyway?_

**A/N famous last words, Rose. thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Drace and Neo snapped to attention as General Isar, the Doctor, and Rose emerged from the room. General Isar placed himself directly in front of them and assumed a commanding pose.

"New instructions regarding the prisoners, privates. I have determined them to be innocent of any treachery or CPR reconnaissance, and after deliberation they have agreed to help support the cause of the KRS," General Isar said. He cleared his throat before continuing his string of directions. "Private Drace, you will show Ms. Rose to lower flight deck C where she will be joining Flight Squadron 341. Private Neo, you are responsible for taking Mr. Doctor to the Priority Gamma strategy room in the starboard wing."

The Doctor shoved his hands in his pockets petulantly. "Oh, only priority gamma? I can do better than _that_," he grumbled. Rose elbowed him in the ribs.

With a thump, the two privates pressed their hands to their chests in salute. "Sir, yes sir!"

"Dismissed." General Isar clasped his hands behind his back as he turned to address Rose and the Doctor. "You will follow these two to your respective assignments. Any indication that you are going against orders will result in your expulsion from the ship. This is not up for debate."

Rose raised her hands in a mock surrendering pose. "We wouldn't dream of it, uh, sir." Instead of responding, the General simply narrowed his eyes then turned to stalk away down the hall with his hands still firmly locked behind his back.

The Doctor humphed. "_Someone_ seems a bit on edge, eh?" He took his hands out of his coat pockets in order to reach for Rose's fingers. "What a fine mess you've gotten us into," he laughed, a tad bitterly.

"Hey, we'll be fine. And so will _they_," Rose pointed at the two guards waiting to escort them away, "as long as we're around to help."

"And here I was thinking we were finally going to get a normal vacation without running into trouble."

"It just wouldn't be right," Rose said and smiled. She squeezed the Doctor's hands before letting her hands fall to her sides. "Besides, we'll be back together in just a few hours, yeah? And maybe we can work on ending this whole civil war thing."

Sighing, the Doctor jammed his hands back into his pockets. "... Right. Of course." He sucked in a deep breath and then turned to Neo. "Well, that's enough dilly dallying, don't you think? It's past time to get going, we wouldn't want to get you in trouble with your boss, eh?" With a cheeky grin, he reached out to link his arm with the slightly perplexed guard. "Allons-y, Private Neo!" He glanced over his shoulder to give Rose a final wink, then sauntered off to the elevator with Neo in tow.

Rose grinned and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, see you soon," she laughed, confident that they would be reunited with plenty of stories to share that evening. She wrapped her arm around Private Drace's with a smile plastered on her face, making him jerk in surprise.

"Come on then, no time to waste! Take me to my new leaders." She smiled and pulled him into the other elevator.

As soon as Rose stepped onto the deck of lower flight deck C, a wrench flew past her and put a solid dent in the wall. She instinctively dove to the side, crashing into Drace and sending them both tumbling to the floor.

"What the - " Drace started to say as he pushed himself off the linoleum, but he was cut off by the sound of heated screaming coming from behind what appeared to be the remnants of a badly burnt space ship.

"How _dare_ you!" shrieked the voice. "You crash in _my hanger_, with your ship in _this_ wretched state, and your partner in _critical condition_, and accuse _me _of acting irresponsibly? I will not stand for this - this - !" A resounding clang echoed as the damaged wing of the ship clattered to the floor. The voice let out a frustrated wail, followed by the sound of someone falling to the ground.

"Hey, it's really not _my _fault she couldn't hold up out there! I didn't exactly have much input on the design process," said another indignant voice. "And there were _way_ more buzzers out there than analytics predicted, and also, like, _seven_ Shadows, instead of, I don't know, the _two_ we're used to handling?"

Rose stood and peeked around the corner of the wreckage to see two men, both with dark skin though one was bald and the other had very long hair pulled back in a ponytail. They both seemed to be trying to glare the other to death.

"Um, this seems like it's probably a bad time, but hi! I'm Rose. I'm looking for Flight Squad 341. Any idea where they might be?" Rose tried her best to look as friendly as possible to diffuse the tension.

The bald man threw down his clipboard with an angry huff. "Well, congratulations, you've found us! Or at least what's _left_ of us," he spat.

"Hey!" the man with the ponytail snapped. "It's hardly fair to pin this all on me, and you know it!"

"_My_ job is to design the fighters. _Your_ job is to keep them in one piece. Only one of those things happened today, Sion!"

The man with the ponytail, apparently named Sion, lunged for the smaller man, who only barely managed to duck out of the way. Slightly worried, Rose jumped after him.

"Okay, no need for any of that!" she said, trying and failing to maintain a casual tone. Sion had grabbed the bald man by the front of his shirt and had his fist raised in the air like he was ready to smash his skull in. Rose shoved in front of him and smiled hesitantly. "What if you just tell me what's going on, yeah?"

Sion dropped his fist but kept a firm grip on the man's shirt. "This bastard thinks he can pin the failure of the entire KRS army on me, just because I was ambushed by seven Shadows instead of the two his lousy ship was equipped to handle."

"And… uh, that's bad, right?" Rose asked. "I mean, it looks bad." She gestured to the smoking wreck behind her.

"Bad?" the bald man scoffed, even though Sion was still holding him by his shirt collar. "It's the third ship he's destroyed in as many weeks. If everyone in the KRS burned through expensive equipment like he does, we'd have lost the war within a month!" Sion growled and shook him slightly, but Rose grabbed his hand to make him stop.

"Okay, how about putting him down now? Does that sound okay?" Rose tried to reason. "Um… well, that does sound bad, but, well… how about one of you shows me around, yeah? I'm new to your, uh, team, and I need someone to show me the ropes." Sion didn't move for a moment, but then slowly released his hand.

The bald man tsked as he bent over to pick up his clipboard. He pulled a pen from his shirt pocket and made a note on the paper with an exasperated sigh. "Right," he mumbled. "Because exactly what we need is another human disaster to look after in Squad 341."

Rose blinked. "Excuse me?"

"What Ansus _means_ to say," Sion said, "is that we've got too many problems right now to train up some other random cadet. So maybe you'd better go find somewhere else to go, Miss…?"

"It's Rose." She crossed her arms over her chest a little indignantly. "And I've got direct orders from General Isar that I'm supposed to be here. Besides," she said as the ship wreckage sparked and hissed behind her, "it looks like you lot could use all the help you can get." The other wing of the ship detached from the main hull and crashed to the ground.

Ansus flinched at the reverberating sound, then sighed and wiped at his forehead with the back of his sleeve. "Sion, she's your problem now. Since you'll almost certainly be needing a new copilot, what with Meria being out of commission." Sion opened his mouth to respond angrily, but Ansus swiftly cut him off. "I'm leaving to see if there's anything in this godforsaken hanger that might put any of your equipment back together." With that, he ducked underneath the banged up ship and disappeared.

"You slagging cockroach," Sion whispered fervently in Ansus' direction. He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes and rubbed them forcefully before sighing and looking wearily at Rose. "So you're part of 341 now, huh?"

Rose kept her arms crossed defensively. "Yeah. I volunteered to help out, and they told me to come join your flight squadron. Even though," she hesitated for a moment, "I can't fly a spaceship."

"It's not that hard, as long as you can steer you'll be fine," Sion responded in an automatic voice. He blinked. "Um… Ansus was right, though, when he said that the last thing we need is someone else to worry about out on the field."

Rose shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Don't think of me as someone to worry about, think of me as someone who's here to help."

"I don't know…"

"Also, I wasn't kidding about that 'direct orders from General Isar' bit." Rose sniffed at the smoke-filled air. "And somehow I don't think contradicting orders is exactly the smartest thing to do right now."

Sion frowned, but seemed to acknowledge her point. "I… well, okay, I guess we do need someone else to fill in, now that Meria's down for the count…" He paused to crack his neck.

"You should probably teach me how to fly a spaceship, then," Rose said quickly.

"Oh, I won't be teaching you, that would probably be Garin or Toss's job. I should probably introduce you to them if you're joining us…"

Rose privately thought that Sion seemed a little frazzled and was a little grateful that he wouldn't be the one trying to teach her how to fly an actual spaceship. "Okay, why don't you do that?" she asked brightly, trying to force as much cheerfulness into her voice as possible.

"Yeah, Sion, introduce us!"

Sion and Rose spun around at the sound of two people approaching them from behind. One was a small woman with short, electric blue hair. The other was a young man with a pair of thick glasses balanced on a misshapen nose. Both of them had dopey grins on their faces as they sauntered over. Sion groaned and covered his face with his hands.

The woman whistled at the sparking wreckage. "Wow, Sion, that's the third Raptor you've trashed this month!" She would have seemed impressed if not for the condescending grin she pulled.

"That's _Captain_ Sion to you, Toss."

Toss waved a dismissive hand in the air. "Whatever. Who's she?"

"I'm Rose, I'm joining your… squadron. I think."

"That's nice. What are your qualifications?" asked the young man.

Rose bit her lip. "Uh… well, none, I guess. I can't even fly a spaceship."

Toss and the young man started laughing, but Sion planted himself in front of them and assumed a stern expression. "This isn't a joke. You two are in charge of teaching her how to fly so that she can take over Meria's position."

"Ooh, I _love_ it when you use your commander voice," the young man said. He reached up to pat Sion's shoulder. "Maybe one of these days you'll actually be promoted! Ha ha!"

Sion shoved the man's hand away. "Knock if off, Garin. Maybe the real reason I'm trying to get promoted is to get away from annoying little idiots like you two."

"Idiots!" Garin gasped dramatically. "Did you hear that, Toss?"

"The horror!" Toss pretended to faint into Garin's arms. Sion humphed in frustration as the two dissolved into giggles.

"Garin, Garin, listen, if Sion fell from his ego level to his IQ level, he'd break all the bones in his body," Toss laughed, disregarding how red Sion's face was turning.

"Oo-kay," Rose said, once again pushing herself in front of Sion to try and get everyone to calm down. She was now in full accordance with General Isar's statement that Squadron 341 definitely needed a voice of reason to keep them from killing each other. "How about instead of being rude, one of you shows me how to fly a spaceship?"

Toss and Garin jumped on the idea. "We can do that!" they said simultaneously, then laughed again.

"Take one of the Mark III Raptors and one of the Mark IVs," Sion directed, trying to regain control of the situation. "Garin, you fly the IV and Toss can help Rose in the III."

"But I don't _want_ to fly the IV!"

"Fine, you go in the III. I don't care." Sion rubbed his temples in aggravation. "I swear it's like I'm your babysitter," he muttered.

"Come on, Rose!" Garin said. He grabbed her hand and pulled her in the direction he and Toss had come from. "Mr. Commander General doesn't want us around while he broods over _another_ scrapped Raptor."

Rose opened her mouth to respond, but then shut it without saying anything and just sighed instead. The two pilots dragged her around a corner and ran the distance to the other side of the hangar, where there were several spaceships waiting, all of them in much better condition than the one they had left Sion standing by. Their sleek designs only differed in their sizes. Half of them seemed to be double the height and length of the others.

Garin reached up to pat one of the larger ships. "So this is the Mark III Raptor. It's equipped with seven different high-energy blasters, three up top and two under each wing, and four heat-seeking missiles. Also designed for two pilots."

"The Mark IVs are basically the same, but for just one pilot," Toss said as she banged on the wing of one of the small ships. She pulled a ladder out from underneath the space ship so she could climb up and into the cockpit.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked as she moved closer.

"Getting ready to fly out? Duh," Toss said and rolled her eyes. "Come on, go get in the III!"

Rose blinked. "What? I don't even know how to fly a regular plane, much less a space ship!"

"That's why we're _teaching_ you." Garin pushed her over to the Mark III. "Get in! We're using the III so that I can tell you what to do while we're out there."

Rose wanted to protest, but Garin forced her up into the cramped cockpit of the spaceship. While Garin climbed in, she looked over the array of buttons and levers that meant absolutely nothing to her. Red lights lit up the area around her, and she found the flashing of one button above her very distracting. She reached up to touch it and saw that it was labeled 'seatbelt'. When she pressed it, two straps pushed out of the chair she was sitting in and locked over her shoulders. The dashboard extended forward with a hiss so that she could reach the different controls without any difficulty.

"There, see? Not that hard," Garin said as he pressed the same button over his head.

"We haven't done anything yet," Rose answered nervously. A small screen lit up in front of her when she brushed her fingers over the surface. The message "NO TARGETS ACQUIRED" blinked up in red letters overtop the shape of a crosshairs.

Garin gestured towards a ray of blue switches. "Those control the lift off sequence. Go ahead and flip the first three down."

Rose did what he said, and the top of the cockpit slid closed with a click. The rest of the dashboard lit up brightly. Beneath her feet she could feel the rumbling of the engine engaging. Garin tossed a headpiece with a microphone towards her, which she pulled snugly around her ears.

"This is Squad 341, Red 3, asking for clearance to depart," Garin said into the microphone. There was nothing but static relayed through the headphones for a moment, before another grainy voice answered.

"_This is Hangar C to Red 3, state your reason for departure._"

"Training exercise for Red, um, 5, I guess."

"..._Clearance granted. Opening hangar doors in five."_

Garin flipped the rest of the blue switches down. Rose jerked as the ground shifted beneath her feet and grabbed at two curved bars in front of her that seemed to be the ship's steering mechanism. Above her, she could hear the muffled sound of the hangar doors sliding open.

"Press that red button in the center to get us out of here," Garin instructed. Rose hesitantly pressed it down, and let out a small gasp of surprise as the spaceship lifted off the ground and rose up into the flat black expanse of space she could see through the window above her.

Another voice crackled in over the headpiece. "_Come on, Red 3, let's blow this joint!_"

"Right behind you, Red 4," Garin laughed. "Rose, pull up on the steering bars!"

"Uh… okay?" Rose pulled up on the bars forcefully, and the ship rocketed incredibly fast directly up and out of the hangar.

Garin grabbed her hands and pulled them off the bars. "Woah! What are you trying to do, kill us? This is sensitive equipment!"

"Sorry," Rose said. She looked out of the window in front of her. The hangar had almost disappeared beneath them, and now they were floating in the middle of space. Below her, she could see the blue and green surface of Nikaro. To her right, she could see Toss in the Mark IV giving her a wave. She slowly waved back before turning her attention back to the flashing controls in front of her. "So...now what do I press?"

"Okay, first you're supposed to check that the reactor core is stable, which it is, see that green bar on the screen? And then you check that your weapon supplies are full, which they are, that's the other green bar. After that, there's not that much else to do. The only tricky part is landing, I guess."

"And we're not doing that yet," Rose said.

"Right."

"How do I move forward?"

"Right now, you're in charge of weapon deployment, not steering, that yellow lever there toggles the flying and firing between the two pilots." Garin pushed the lever from side to side to demonstrate, and left it facing towards him. "I took over steering when you tried to kill us coming out of the hangar just a second ago."

Rose nodded. "So how do I fire then?"

Garin indicated the two red buttons on top of the steering bars. "Press them together at the same time. Don't try to fire a missile just yet."

When Rose pressed down on the buttons, she expected to just see two red bolts of light fly out of the cannons above her. What she didn't expect was the explosion as they hit something just a hundred meters away. Beside her, Garin gasped and flew into a flurry of action, jerking up on the bars and peeling away from where they had just been. He spun a dial on the ceiling, and instantly Rose's side of the dashboard went dark.

"What's happening?" Rose asked worriedly. Garin didn't answer as the ship shot away. She glanced out the window just in time to see a volley of green bolts fly just inches away from the Mark III's wingtips. "Is someone _shooting_ at us?"

"_Two shadows at three o'clock!_" crackled Toss's voice over the headphones. "_Garin, get out of there_!"

"What's going on?" Rose tried to ask, but she was cut off as a black ship appeared seemingly out of nowhere directly in front of them. Garin shouted in alarm and tried to swerve out of the way, but there was nothing he could do as the ship fired two lasers directly at them.

Instantly, the Mark III went from shooting forward to spinning down in a deadly spiral. Rose yelled as the gravitational force pinned her back to her chair.

"We're hit, we're hit, Red 3 is down!" She could hear Garin yelling into the microphone as she struggled to understand what was going on. "Two cloaked Shadows waiting around the flagship…" He was cut off as a red siren and lights started flashing in warning around them.

There was a loud jolt as the ship plummeted towards the blue planet below. The entire ship shuddered as it passed through the atmosphere. Rose could hear her heart hammering in her ears, or maybe that was the sound of the ship breaking apart - ?

Garin was frantically trying to level out the ship's descent, but was clearly failing. The ground was rushing up closer and closer every second. Finally, he called out for Rose to brace herself, as if she wasn't already gripping her seat as tightly as she could.

Rose screamed as the Mark III slammed into the ground with a horrifying crunch, and everything went black.


End file.
